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4.3 Qualitative Analysis

Fig. 4.3 depicts the stages in qualitative analysis.

Blind analysis by subject	Identification of preferred articles from comments Identification of issues common to multiple viewers Identification of criteria associated with highly positive comments
Key	Disclosure of key
Commonalities	Examination of commonalities and differences across the full sample of articles
Subject domains	Examination of commonalities and differences across subject domains
Languages	Examination of commonalities and differences across languages

Fig. 4.3 Stages in qualitative analysis.

The process of qualitative analysis followed the processes of reduction and display as recommended by Miles and Huberman, in their sourcebook on Qualitative Data Analysis (1994, Sage). Qualitative data were first of all summarised and compiled into spreadsheets for ease of comparison and analysis notes were written and revised over a period of time by reviewers in order to search for patterns, anomalies and illustrative examples. There was no question of using quantifiable content analysis on material such as this, given the fact that much of the language used had been generated by us in creating the criteria to be considered in the reviewer materials. Thus, it was the task of the qualitative data analysis to make interpretive judgments about salient themes and patterns, through repeated reading of the data followed by exploratory attempts at writing coherent and descriptions of results justifiable by substantial and wide-ranging use of illustrative material from the original raw data.

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